The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen

by Shokoofeh Azar, Anonymous (Translator)

From International Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist Shokoofeh Azar, comes a stylistically audacious and emotionally powerful novel about one large, complicated family and a love affair lasting decades.


Spanning fifty years in the history of modern Iran, this lush, layered story embraces politics and family, revolution and reconstruction, loss and love as it recounts the colorful destinies of twelve children who get lost one long-ago night inside a mysterious palace.


Azar’s first novel, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Europa Editions, 2020), was shortlisted for the Stella Prize for Fiction and the International Booker Prize; it was longlisted for the PEN America Award and the National Book Award for Translated Literature.


In Azar’s new novel, each lost child’s story unfolds against the backdrop of immense cultural and political transformation; lovers must survive war, revolution, and rigid social strictures to keep their love alive; family bonds are tested, especially those indissoluble connections between the living and the dead. The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen is also the moving story of one family’s efforts to preserve the richness of Iranian culture in the face of Islamic hegemony following the 1979 revolution.

Genres: Fiction, Iran, Middle East, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

529 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 10, 2025

About the author

Author and journalist:
The writer of “The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree”

Awards:
* Longlisted at National Book Awards 2020
* Shortlisted at The Booker International 2020
* Shortlisted at The Stella Prize 2018
* Shortlisted at The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award 2018
* Shortlisted at The Adelaide Writers Festival 2020

Grants:
Australian Council for the Arts 2019
Creative Victoria 2019

Reviews

[Bojana]

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing ARC for review.

DNF at ~100 pages

At the very beginning I was captivated by the lyrical writing and the interweaving of magical realism and symbolism into a family saga set in 20th century Iran—a setting I was particularly excited to explore and learn more about. The early chapters showed real potential: the Gowkaran tree bursting through the family kitchen and the children’s journey through echoes of ancestral homes were rich with mystery of facing one's roots and heritage, which, once they emerge, can no longer be ignored.
But as I continued, the prose—while beautiful—became overwhelmingly dense. The narrative lost clarity and structure, and by the last 20 pages I read, I was left completely disoriented. Magical realism holds amazing potential in storytelling (and I’ve loved it time and again, especially in the works of Latin American authors), but here it became too much. I felt like everything wrapped in metaphor, and when everything becomes a symbol, you no longer can see the forest for the trees. I struggled to stay focused — not because I wasn’t trying, but because the storytelling demanded more mental effort than it rewarded. With around 400 pages still ahead, I couldn’t justify continuing a reading experience that was so draining.
Readers who enjoy abstract, nonlinear, highly symbolic narratives may find something here. After such a strong start I was, however, disappointed. This one just wasn’t for me.

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is ambitious.Unfortunately, it doesn´t deliver. Starts strong,interesting, and quickly loses its way. It´s an insult to the masters of magical realism to call this MR;most attempts are silly, "symbolism" is so heavy handed it´s transparent (and therefore not symbolism),it goes off on tangents that are meaningless. I love books where stories shoot off from other stories, but this is a mess.Aims for epic,ends up pathetic. Attempts to be quest, coming of age, love story (shows it as epic,and it´s insipid and silly),Iranian history,and ends up being nothing. Iranian history deserved better. Much better.

[Madeline Gautreaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

“ Stories succeed stories, just as one human succeeds another, time succeeds time, and no death has ever commenced with birth, and no being has ever been the continuation of non-being.”

This book was an absolutely spectacular read. Having read a few books with the backdrop of Tehran and then 1979 revolution, I truly felt like this book encapsulated much of the knowledge I had previously learned while also teaching me so many new things about life in Tehran pre and post revolution. The author does a beautiful job weaving the storyline with historical events while also adding a beautiful backdrop to the characters, their families, and love overall.

I would highly, highly recommend you add this book to your TBR because it is well worth the time and emotion this book evokes. Thank you again NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

[Toni Umar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad to say also a DNF for me. I got up to page 101 and would like to keep,going. But it’s a library book and due back and a long waiting list for future readers. I’ll aim to borrow again in 6 months or so or better yet track myself down a copy. Some of the paragraphs I read were so beautifully written, it was a little hard to follow but I’m hoping if I can read it in big chunks in the future, you will be reading a different review. The content is a part of history and the world I very much want to learn more about.

[Nimue Shive · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the writing style and imagery of this book and this idea of the tree being like the base of the family
. But I hate that everyone died and I kept getting the characters mixed up because they’d switch POVs without saying and a lot of names were similar.

[Hanna (theworldtoread) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am completely obsessed with this book. It's devastating and harrowing and awful but so god damn beautiful.

Shokoofeh Azar's first book, The enlightenment of the greengage tree, is one of my all time favourite books, and was also one of the catalysts in starting my journey across the world in books. So you can imagine that I was excited beyond belief to read an arc of The gowkaran tree in the middle of our kitchen. It took me a little while to read however, because I had to read it on my phone - netgalley, PLEASE fix your issues with kobo please thank uuuu. Anyways, it was worth it for Azar, who has once again proven to be one of my all time favourite writers.

This is an incredibly magical tale, and at first I had no idea what was going on. I was getting a bit worried that I wasn't going to love the gowkaran tree like I loved the greengage tree. I felt like I was lacking too much background knowledge to understand all the intricate details and symbolism. Because The gowkaran tree in the middle of our kitchen isn't just any old book. Reading this book is hard work, to be honest. Reading this felt like a collection of ancient myths. Spirits, gods and devils walk among mortals in this story. People disappear and return years later unchanged, people die and reach out from beyond the grave. About 20% in, when modern developments come into the story - it is set during the 1979 revolution in Iran - everything suddenly snapped into place. The rich prose, the unbelievable magic, the touching real life tragedies. The star crossed lovers and the philosophical questions. I honestly think this book is a masterpiece, the way it weaves together historical tale with family saga, love story and myth. I have never read anything quite like it.

Thank you to netgalley and Europa editions for the arc of Shokoofeh Azar's The gowkaran tree in the middle of our kitchen in exchange for an honest review!

[Mostafa Mostafa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book so it seems unfair to rate it.
I was very excited for this book’s release after Azar’s last book.
But this was very chaotic! The book was okay until the protagonist decides to leave her house and look for her brother. I could not comprehend what was really happeneing, characters came and went, people talking about stuff i have no clue about until I decided to give up at around page 300.
I

[Rod Ghods · Rating 1 out of 5]

it’s the only book I DNF since ‘Nam. Got through about 200 pages. There are spellbinding passages and moments, overshadowed by myriad characters and vignettes that turn it into a dizzying and slow-moving story. Maybe I’m too impatient, but the side quests weren’t compelling enough to keep me engaged.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This epic and multi-layered novel was just too much for me: too much magic realism, too much folklore, too many myths, too much symbolism. It may be that I need to re-read it, but I’m not sure if I’m strong enough. It’s so ambitious that I feel it loses sight of its core premise and thus becomes overwhelming with its language, imagery and narrative structure. It tracks a Zoroastrian family over five decades beginning in the 1970s, from pre-revolutionary times, to the Islamic Revolution and on to the Iran-Iraq war: Iran’s past, present and possible future. It’s a sweeping family saga set against half a century of upheaval and tumult. The story centres around a mysterious Gowkaran tree that suddenly and unexpectedly grows in the middle of the kitchen of the family house, the still heart of them all. As the family endures revolution and war they fight to hold on to their cultural traditions and family cohesion. Supernatural elements are woven into the reality, with mythical figures and ancient legends abounding. There’s a vast cast of characters, mostly well-drawn and memorable, but with so many of them it was sometimes hard to distinguish between them, especially as two key ones have very similar names. The personal and the political are explored here to great effect but I found the language too lyrical and too dense. I enjoyed the real-life sections much more than the allegorical ones, and didn’t find it the immersive experience that some readers obviously have. A mixed bag and one that for me didn’t really work, although I am glad to have discovered it as it does actually give a lot if insight into Iran and Iranian culture.

[Blair (Patchwork Culture) · Rating 5 out of 5]

My words won’t capture this book and my response to it properly. No doubt, rereading it once my knowledge of the world grows some more would completely change my understanding of it. The book allowed me to see beyond my tiny picture of Persia, the Islamic Republic, and current events. It’s not a traditional family saga as I first thought, but rather a kaleidoscopic visit to a large family known for lively gatherings, religious ceremony, and a penchant for telling stories and writing memoirs. The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen sometimes presented itself as magical realism, showcasing a reverence for poetry and art, not just for their beauty and historical significance, but also for their power to bring comfort and inspire resistance. All the references to myths and legends made me want to learn so much more about Ancient Iran, the rich cultures and different peoples that make up the Iranshahri. But the book wasn't all whimsical fantasy; it treaded the darkness of oppressive governments, detailing surveillance, extrajudicial killings, and the suppression of the population. It personified and deified life and death as much as it detailed real applications of those themes. By the end of the book, I was absolutely heartbroken, but I was still left with the hum of hope and the spirit of resistance, love, and joy. Azar explored the symbolism of numbers and trees, whose meaning I longed to grasp. I noticed that all of the author's books have a tree in the title, which makes me curious to read them and determine the connection for myself.

[Haxxunne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like discovering Tolkien all over again
—
One writer’s magical realism is another writer’s fantasy: the fact that this is translated fiction perhaps puts it squarely in the field of literary fiction, as well as its alluding to Zoroastrianism and other SWANA culture; but given the immediate premise of the novel, that a gowkaran tree appears in the family kitchen that only the family can see, a tree that provides every kind of fruit and vegetable; that it‘s the roost for all the birds under the sun, including the magical Simurgh; that the dozen children of the family enter a magical palace that is almost like their own house but is, well, magical—this is fantasy, and such good fantasy!

The only way that I could describe it is that it’s like staring into a parallel literary world, where the foundational myths are understood by the rest of the world but not by me, and that’s okay when it’s this well written, making the unfamiliar exciting, enticing and thrilling. It was like discovering Tolkien all over again, but rather than Icelandic sagas, we are thrust into an incredible, strange and fathomless world of Iranian myth and fantasy, even as real world revolution intrudes on the idylls of childhood and family. A must read.

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was ready to adore this book. The awards and honors it has received alone set me up to be enthralled...But, for me, this was a surprisingly hard book to get into. Some of that might have been due the temporary formatting (I read the book pre-release in exchange for an honest review). In the pre-publication version I read, footnotes popped up in the middle of the page several pages after they were initially mentioned. But I think there was more to it--the intro chapter did not manage to invite the reader in. I loved the magical realism at the story's center--a tree bearing assorted fruits and birds suddenly pops up in the middle of the family kitchen. But the rush of characters blended together and, sadly, I was only able to read the first couple of chapters and could not force myself to go on. This rarely happens. In fact, I think it has only happened a handful of times in my nearly 6 decades of reading. I hate to leave a full review based on two chapters...but if I feel this way, I suspect others will, as well.

[Mehrdad Rafiee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Gowkaran Tree
I previously read and greatly enjoyed Azar’s debut, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, both in English translation and in the original Farsi.
When her new book was released, I eagerly anticipated it, received my copy in June, and read through to page 279. However, I found certain aspects challenging. The character names are often confusing and difficult to follow, and there are frequent references to local folklore and myths that may be obscure—even for Iranian readers from other regions.
Additionally, many of the sentences feel overly long and at times incoherent, which makes the narrative harder to engage with.
I have no doubt that the book is remarkable in its original Farsi. Unfortunately, it seems that much of its richness and subtlety may have been lost in translation.

[Klee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written, ambitious novel that blends Iranian history, mythology, and magical realism through the story of a Zoroastrian family living through decades of upheaval. The mysterious tree growing in their kitchen is a powerful symbol, and Azar’s language is rich and poetic.

That said, I found the magical realism a bit too much for my taste - at times it felt like the story floated too far from reality, and I struggled to stay grounded in what was actually happening. The pacing also dragged in places, with a lot of narrative threads that didn’t always come together clearly.

Still, if you enjoy dreamlike, symbolic storytelling and don’t mind a slower, more abstract read, this might really work for you. For me, it was a mixed experience.

[Sherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF and while I feel it's somewhat unfair to review, I hope to enlighten anyone similar to myself before they embark on this challenging read. I have up at page 122.

I'm a white American and read the English translation. I have only cursory knowledge of Iran/Persia, Zoroastorian religion and almost no knowledge of Persian historical figures or myths. I might have continued reading had there been a character list, glossary and more footnotes.

I found myself often wondering if I was reading about historical figures, mythical figures, or characters. My sense is that, if I had more background knowledge to distinguish between these things, I would have found the book to be rich and engaging.

[Sarah Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book about the members of an Iranian (Persian) family throughout ancient history and up through the times of the 1979 revolution and it's aftermath. Characters living, ghosts, Persian historical figures all interact to tell the story. It is 513 pages of difficult reading, panning between times and characters, but is so worthwhile. Generally I like straightforward fiction; I picked this up on a whim from my library to read something totally different than my usual genre. I'm greatful to Shokoofeh Azar for this book.

[Tenli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wild ride of a novel, full of magic, passion, and politics. It was written in Farsi by a journalist who is a refugee from the Iranian Islamic Revolution living in exile in Australia. The translator remains anonymous of safety concerns, so probably still in Iran. There is a lot to keep track of in this story, and it’s sometimes confusing, but always mesmerizing. Reading it felt like being in a front row seat for the revolution, but riding on a magical rollercoaster.

[Annette Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly astounding book. Iran from the 1979 revolution, through the Iran/Iraq war and beyond: mass arrests, torture, rape, executions and more. There's also some light relief and even playfulness with magical realism, dreams and ghosts and There's a heartwarming love story running all the way through it. Not an easy read but well worth the effort.

[Rebecca Lowery · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Of course, they didn’t get that staring at flowers is a form of being busy. That watching the flow of the clouds is an important activity. That in a period of depression and fear, to think about beautiful things, your dreams and wishes, and to smile is highly, highly important, a vital task” (201-02).

[faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was incredible - one of those mind bending fantastical magical realism stories that midway turned into the most devastating account of post iran revolution that had me stopping because it was too hard to read through. there’s much magic in the writing, and just so blown away by the complexity of structure and thought and storyline.
reminiscent of one hundred years of solitude type

[Sarah Bridges · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was extremely difficult to get into. It seemed all over the place and hard to keep track of the characters and what was going on. Perhaps it was the folklore aspects that made it difficult for me to engage but I’m not sure I could recommend this one.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Meg]

This Iranian story gushes with dreamy imagery and magical realism. It uses many beautiful words and sentences. But I could not follow what was happening at all. I suppose that is somewhat the point in a magical tale like this, but I wasn't enjoying it and gave up at 25%.

[Nina Adriaanse]

Prachtig geschreven, vol verdriet en melancholie en een piepklein sprankje hoop. De opbouw en structuur van het boek was minder aan mij besteed; de hoofdstukken leken meer semi-aparte verhalen en tegen het einde was ik ook wel echt klaar met het boek.

[J R · Rating 4 out of 5]

deeply interesting magical realism story with very realistic and interesting characters. but at points, they blur due to a bit of a lack of distinction. 3.5 stars, rounded up. tysm for the arc.

[Rhys Wardhaugh]

DNF too much fantasy for me. Shame as I would love to learn more about Iranian culture and the Revolution.

[Tiffany]

DNF @ 114. The prose is difficult to follow. I held on as long as I could but the story was lost in the complex writing.

[Amanda]

DNF at page 103. It is beautiful but so very long. I am too unfamiliar with Iranian culture so it’s a struggle to read.

[Rozanna Lilley]

Zoroastrian fable, family saga, romance novel and relentless account of the horrors of war and of the Iranian regime all sprawled across 500+ pages. An audacious plea for a better future.

[Hannah Rizwi · Rating 1 out of 5]

The mystical, flighty style of this book, and perhaps the problems with translating it to English, made it too chaotic and disjointed for me to follow. I did not finish it. 😐

[Anne Drummond · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave it away at page 44, one of very few books I have not persisted with.